, or American born, as persons who had degenerated more or less
by their contact with the aborigines and the wilderness. For their part,
the Creoles looked upon the Spaniards as upstarts and intruders, whose
sole claim to consideration lay in the privileges dispensed them by the
home government. In testimony of this attitude they coined for their
oversea kindred numerous nicknames which were more expressive than
complimentary. While the Creoles held most of the wealth and of the
lower offices, the Spaniards enjoyed the perquisites and emoluments of
the higher posts.

Though objects of disdain to both these masters, the Indians generally
preferred the Spaniard to the Creole. The Spaniard represented a distant
authority interested in the welfare of its humbler subjects and came
less into actual daily contact with the natives. While it would hardly
be correct to say that the Spaniard was viewed as a protector and the
Creole as an oppressor, yet the aborigines unconsciously made some
such hazy distinction if indeed they did not view all Europeans with
suspicion and dislike. In Brazil the relation of classes was much the
same, except that here the native element was much less conspicuous as a
social factor.

These distinctions were all the more accentuated by the absence both
of other European peoples and of a definite middle class of any race.
Everywhere in the areas tenanted originally by Spaniards and Portuguese
the European of alien stock was unwelcome, even though he obtained a
grudging permission from the home governments to remain a colonist. In
Brazil, owing to the close commercial connections between Great Britain
and Portugal, foreigners were not so rigidly excluded as in Spanish
America. The Spaniard was unwilling that lands so rich in natural
treasures should be thrown open to exploitation by others, even if the
newcomer professed the Catholic faith. The heretic was denied admission
as a matter of course. Had the foreigner been allowed to enter, the risk
of such exploitation doubtless would have been increased, but a middle
class might have arisen to weld the the discordant factions into a
society which had common desires and aspirations. With the development
of commerce and industry, with the growth of activities which bring
men into touch with each other in everyday affairs, something like a
solidarity of sentiment might have been awakened. In its absence the
only bond among the dominant whites was their sense